Insurance Covered The role of the actuary (With Harriet Hughes)
Jan 26, 2026
Harriet Hughes, an actuary and reserving lead at Liberty Mutual with a maths background, explains how actuaries quantify uncertain futures in property, credit and legal lines. She unpacks reserving work, IBNR estimation, balancing models with judgment, and how AI and storytelling fit into technical roles. Short, clear takes on forecasting, collaboration with claims, and presenting tough numbers to boards.
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Actuary Role Is Broad Risk Quantification
- Actuaries quantify future uncertain events across any field with measurable risk.
- Harriet Hughes applies this to non-life lines like property, marine and professional indemnity.
Reserving: Predicting The Ultimate Claim Cost
- Reserving actuaries estimate the ultimate cost of all claims for a year of account.
- Insurers need that estimate to assess profitability and to hold sufficient funds to pay claims.
Paid Reserves Don’t Capture All Liabilities
- Case reserves plus paid claims do not capture claims not yet known or not yet occurred.
- Actuaries estimate IBNR to quantify those unknown future obligations.